USKH Announces New Principal And Associate

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – USKH Inc. (USKH) recently named a new principal and associate of the employee-owned company, which has seven offices in Alaska and Pacific Northwest.

Dale Smythe, AIA, was named a principal, while Daniel Karas, AIA, was named an associate.

Smythe has spent his entire professional career with USKH. He joined USKH in 2001 after graduating from Montana State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Design and a Master of Architecture. He is a native of Anchorage, graduating from Service High School. He is the Anchorage Regional Architecture Manager.

Among his recent projects are several rural school projects, including new and renovated schools in Kwigillingok, Quinhagak and Nightmute for the Lower Kuskokwim School District and a new school in Koliganek for the Southwest Region School District, for which he served as Project Manager and led the design efforts. He also was the Project Manager for the renovated Big Lake Elementary School.

Smythe was the Project Manager for the Eielson Air Force Base Physical Fitness Center renovation project, which was selected as the Honor Award winner for Facility Design in the 2009 U.S. Air Force Design Awards Program. He also led the design team on the LEED silver certified 11500 C Street office building for Cook Inlet Region, Inc.

Karas joined USKH in 2007 after working the previous nine years for architectural design firms in Seattle and Chicago. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies from the University of Illinois in 1998 and a Master of Architecture from the University of Washington in 2004. He works primarily from USKH’s Walla Walla, Washington, office.

Among his projects are design for the construction of a new dormitory building for the Fairbanks Pipeline Training Center; the architectural design of multiple phases at the Power House Theater in Walla Walla, an adaptive reuse of an 1890s power building into a modern Shakespeare theatre; the renovation and addition to an 88,000-square-foot office and operations building for the Columbia Rural Electric Association; and the renovation of Walla Walla’s O’Rourke Building.

About USKH Inc.

USKH is an employee-owned, solution-oriented full service design firm offering fully-integrated architectural, landscape architecture, engineering, environmental, planning, and land surveying services to clients throughout Alaska and the Pacific Northwest since 1972. Our mission is making communities better places to live.